I don’t know if it will help them sell cars are not, but Cadillac’s decision to move it’s business headquarters to the trendy Soho district of New York City has certainly gotten some attention as have Cadillac marketing maven Melody Lee’s comments related to the move and the potential customers they hope to reach by making Cadillac into a more general luxury brand, not just a car company. When I saw that Lee’s boss, Jim Vurpillat, Global Marketing Director for Cadillac was going to be participating in a press event for the 2015 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, because Cadillac has factory based teams running racing versions of the ATS in the Pirelli World Challenge, it seemed like a good opportunity to ask him how racing and the high performance V cars in Cadillac’s portfolio fit in with appealing to New York’s trendy set, a group not known for their love or horsepower or what they see as environmentally questionable motorsports.

Few cars have been the subject of so much lively debate among TTAC readers than those made by Cadillac – and no more has been more polarizing than the ATS. As it happens, I have been driving one of these controversial machines for the past 15,000 miles and thought I’d pen an objective, non-hyperbolic retrospective about owning this car before I bid farewell to it next month. While it would be easy to argue that the Internet doesn’t need another ATS review (and it really doesn’t) my words here are not really intended to be a traditional review. I promise you that I will not to expose you to my views about the latest iteration of the art and science design school or any musings about track performance numbers. No, today I will break all the automotive press rules and share with you what it was like to actually own this car: what was good, what was OK and what was infuriating. Sounds exciting, right? No? OK I’ll promise to keep it light so hear me out and then feel free to throw rotten tomatoes at my views in the comments section.